ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — You wouldn’t have been wrong either way.
Kyle Lofton was his typically rock-solid self at the Charleston Classic, averaging 17 points, five assists and three rebounds while playing all but four minutes in a three-game, four-day stretch against top-flight competition. Jaren Holmes was equally terrific, posting a pair of hard-earned double-doubles — 14 points, 10 rebounds against Boise State and 19 points, 13 rebounds in the championship win over Marquette — while averaging 17 points, nine boards and four assists and playing 115 of 120 minutes.
The St. Bonaventure duo demonstrated why it was chosen to the Atlantic 10 preseason first and second team, respectively. They were the reason, when considering their combined 9-of-13 effort from 3-point range against Clemson, that Bona even had the opportunity to play for a tourney crown.
And though Lofton wound up winning MVP honors (and Holmes had his rightful place on the all-tournament team), either one could have been justifiably handed the hardware. And both were honored on an even greater level in the aftermath.
Holmes, in his third year at Bona — who’s become an A-10 killer despite playing roughly the equivalent of a season-and-a-half (49 total games) — was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Week on Monday. It was his second such accolade, the first coming after his 38-point outburst against Saint Joseph’s last January.
Lofton, meanwhile, earned NCAA analyst Andy Katz’s National Player of the Week award. Just two weeks into the season, the senior guard has been named to the Cousy Award Watch (for the nation’s top point guard), the preseason Top 50 list for the Wooden Award (National Player of the Year) and a national Player of the Week.
“The senior guard led the Bonnies to the Charleston Classic title with wins over Boise State, Clemson and Marquette,” Katz said. “… He was the leader the Bonnies were banking on heading into this season.”
— It was a trivial, yet notable footnote to the Bonnies’ blowout win over Marquette, if only because ESPN’s cameras happened to catch the exchange in real time.
And it was the final display needed for some Bona fans to alter their opinion of Golden Eagles coach Shaka Smart.
With 1:47 remaining, Smart took visible umbrage to Bona coach Mark Schmidt calling a timeout in a one-sided game to pull his starters and empty his bench (Schmidt had the reserves at the scorer’s table a minute earlier, but pulled them back due to it only being a brief break for free throws).
Smart, whom local fans last saw when Bona was beating his VCU team at the buzzer in 2015, wondered why Schmidt couldn’t just sub at a dead ball. Schmidt had an easy, and understandable, defense: Smart was still having his starters full-court press down 25; the Bona coach was about to insert three freshmen and two junior college transfers, three of whom have rarely seen the floor. He wanted to make sure his guys were prepared to handle the coming pressure.
By this point, Bona fans had become fed up with Smart, who’d seemingly been taking his game-long frustrations out on just about everybody — the officials, the Bona sideline — except for the side most responsible for being beaten pillar to post: his own. They viewed his actions as childish and even, at times, embarrassing.
In the end, however, both coaches downplayed the incident.
“It was just, you know, competitive stuff,” Schmidt said. “We got a bunch of young guys, they don’t know what they’re doing, so I called (it) to make sure everybody’s set; they’re pressing, so I just wanted to make sure. They didn’t take too kindly to it, but I’m not here to run up anything or show anybody up, I’m just trying to coach my team.”
And though he again questioned the decision in his postgame press conference, Smart was also complimentary of the Bonnies, saying: “Coach Schmidt has always gotten his team to achieve at about as high a level as it can. I’ve played against them, followed them closely since I left the A-10, and he’s done a great job. He’s built that program to the point where they’re one one of the top, if not the top program in the league.”
— Poll facts: Bona’s highest ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 was No. 2 in the 1960-61 season, when it spent seven-straight weeks at that number in January and February. The former Brown Indians finished each of the 1960-61, 1967-68 and 1969-70 seasons at No. 3 nationally in the final AP poll.
The Bonnies have cracked the AP Top 10 in seven seasons across the 50s, 60s and 70s. They last checked in at No. 16 exactly in Week 8 of the 1958-59 campaign, on Jan. 26, 1959.
